Not Just Millennials: JPMorgan’s High-Net-Worth Broker Platform Crashed During Thursday’s Market Collapse

Last week we mocked that Millennials using free-trading app ‘Robinhood’ were getting what they paid for when the site went down numerous times during the worst of the market’s downturns, implicitly forcing losses on users unable to hit the “sell” button.

However,  for those who really do pay a lot – or are worth a lot – it appears the problem is just the same (if not bigger).

Bloomberg reports that JPMorgan’s wealthiest clients suddenly found themselves shut out from trading at the height of this week’s drama in stock markets – just as prices cratered into the worst rout since 1987.

The outage hit the group’s Morcom electronic trading platform, which employees use to place orders on behalf of high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth clients, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

According to a message seen by Bloomberg, the system was overwhelmed by unprecedented volume. The outage began mid-afternoon and was fully resolved after regular market hours.

“Most of yesterday’s trades went through, and we’re working with clients to rectify any individual instances where trades were delayed,” said JPMorgan spokeswoman Jennifer Zuccarelli, confirming that a disruption occurred.

Notably, JPMorgan said that its “You Invest” online trading platform, which competes with Robinhood, wasn’t affected.

This latest ‘glitch’ comes two years after  another technical snafu that gave some customers logging in to online systems access to other clients’ accounts instead of their own.

So, rich or poor, young or old, the lesson is – don’t trust your brokerage platform to be there when you need it most… or perhaps, reduce exposure to a point where you don’t feel the need to panic-sell at the first downturn in 10 years.